Exalted 3e - Welcome to Thorns (IC)

[Inspector Valin]

Heights Team
Hearthroom
Pyrefly snuggles against Dancer happily, the little flame starting to burn a little brighter in her hand. Dancer can feel a sense of excitement and wonder emanating from the fire spirit - it's seemingly unused to exploration, so the sight of the hearthroom is as new to it as you.

As to the names... Rising Nova is unknown to her, but Dancer is quite familiar with Arubato Ohishi. She's met the Water Aspect a few times, or at least born witness to him passing by at court. While the Unrepentant Soldier bears the title of Ambassador to Thorns, it's an open secret that the title is more a punishment to the arrogant ghost - exile from Juggernaut under a polite pretext. Arubato might be thought of as the Mask's true representative - his herald and messenger, expressing his wishes to the Soldier, officers in the Thornguard and even the Deathknights. The golden haired Water Dragon is certainly no occultist, but it does fit that he'd know the identity of someone like Rising Nova - an artificer the Mask needed kept secret. He's likely helped to coordinate the Thornguard, the necrotechs and whatever assistance Nova's provided with this 'Islebreaker'.

Dancer should probably eliminate him at some point, but thus far has run into two crucial difficulties that have made her table any such attempt. Arubato has never been shown to express interest in companionship of any kind, removing one of her most useful openings. And further, his fighting ability is legendary. He likes to boast of being the strongest martial artist in Thorns, and while the Deathknights may contest that claim, they have yet to do so. And every ghostly combatant who sought to challenge the upstart dragon has thus far lost soundly to him.

Depths Team
Marrow
The stand sputters to life, a crimson light flickering across the serpentine metal as it seems to draw Marrow's blood into itself. The light lingers, seemingly taking its time to come to a decision, before finally fading away. A loud yet dissonant chime plays, attempting to draw the attention of some very absent foreman.

The old man, who has been attending to the less able rescued prisoners Marrow and Rivers have returned to the intersection, walks over to Marrow with a commiserating look. "Bad luck, lad. It was worth a shot." But Marrow gets it now. The blood is more than a key, it's a test. Giving it allows the stand to weigh his heart, discern what motive he has for accessing the chamber. If judged to be working for the Mask's best interests, he'd be allowed through, the essence forming some sort of activation key. Failing that, no dice.

That said, this thing was supposed to keep regular mortals out. The Exalted are a different matter. Marrow can feed a slither of his essence into the stand, provide a direct power source to the key and circumvent the blood reading. It'll be a little tricky, like feeding thread through a hole, but it should be doable if he can calm his mind and focus clearly. Just one little mote, a few seconds of careful concentration, and the most valuable items in this whole tower will be his for the taking.

Spoiler

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AKA, basic use of the stand will trigger a read intentions action against you by the stand. Buuuut you can also spend 1m and roll Int + Occult to counterfeit the effect! Difficulty 3.

Whisper
Lacroix does his best to stay calm as Whisper springs at him, but this was likely the same wretched vulture that'd wounded him so grievously earlier. Whisper can see the fear in the ghost's eyes as he tries to maintain his composure, and more importantly his guard when faced with an oncoming crocodile.

Spoiler

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Rolling for formality's sake - this is pretty much a lock for the croc. (6d10)[5][8][7][5][4][4](33)

Rivers
Even the ghost blooded forewoman has no defense against the oncoming shadow. Rivers slithers onwards, past the light and through the door. Just as it'd seemed from that prior vantagepoint, this room adjoins a section of hull plating. There doesn't seem to be an obvious door here, but no matter - Rivers doesn't need so direct a method to enter a ship. The shadow reaches up towards the hull plating, seeking to permeate slight holes and inconsequential gaps - one small crevice is all the Dragon needs to emerge on the other.

Huh. That's odd. Rivers can't phase through it; forget no door, while there are a handful of scarcely permeable openings there's no room on the other side for Rivers to form in. Quite bizzare. Is the ship solid on the other side? Thinking quickly however, Rivers shifts downwards. With how old this tower is, there has to be a leaky section somewhere in the cracks between the walls. All it'll take is a slight opening, enough to forge a path outside so they can see this hidden harrier of the seas and put a stop to it before it launches.

Sure enough, one floor lower and they're beneath the waves - it's almost no effort at all for the shadow to flit forward to take a better look at this secret submersible. The lights from the tower's windows cast a faint glow across the scene, giving Rivers just enough of an outline to get their bearings.

And then, Beloved Rivers and the Islebreaker come face to face.